Real Loft Living

When the $42 million Library Lofts residential complex was finished on October 24, 2003, it was unveiled like a jewel in then-Mayor Kay Barnes’ tiara. The project was considered a vital piece of Barnes’ strategy to resuscitate downtown, and the three buildings have been regularly held up as hallmarks of hip, urban living.

The mayor attended the 2003 ribbon-cutting ceremony with Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, former Congresswoman Karen McCarthy and assorted members of the City Council. Bond told the crowd, “Today’s announcement is proof positive that we are making progress in housing, economic development and overall growth in Kansas City.”

City Manager Wayne Cauthen even moved into the penthouse.

It took a lot of tax abatements to make Library Lofts’ developers Tom Trabon and Roger Buford happy. The city’s Housing and Economic Development Financial Corporation lent the Library Lofts $1.5 million in 2001 to buy the buildings at 117 and 127 West 10th Street and 1004 Baltimore. Since then, Library Lofts LLC has received $4.2 million a year in property tax exemptions.

The Library Lofts buildings boast a sauna, an exercise room and a single-lane swimming pool. It wasn’t hard to lure urban pioneers; just 12 of the complex’s 286 apartments are unoccupied.

But despite the fanfare and amenities, some Library Lofts residents say management has skimped on security and ignored complaints about crime in the buildings. Tenants say Embassy Properties, which runs the Lofts, dropped the security service last summer that used to patrol the buildings. A resident tells the Pitch, “In June or July, the management ran security down to zero without telling the tenants. Nobody really noticed at first.”

Todd Vasko, the executive vice president of Embassy Properties, refused to comment on the level of security.

But between June 2006 and April of this year, the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department received 97 calls to 911 to investigate possible crimes at 127 West 10th Street. The reported crimes included a rash of burglaries. On October 30, two Library Lofts West residences on the 12th floor were burglarized during daytime break-ins. A Sony receiver and CD player, a jar of change and four credit cards were stolen from one apartment; the owner’s losses totaled $700. The same day, a $3,700, 50-inch plasma TV was stolen from another apartment. Three days later, another burglary occurred at an 11th-floor Library Lofts West residence. The victim claimed that 25 pairs of blue jeans, sweat pants, camouflage pants, a brown North Face coat and a credit card were missing, a loss worth $2,830.

Last November, 28-year-old David Maynard-Moody was arrested at 39th Street and Wyandotte driving a stolen car. A manager of the Library Lofts told police that she had seen Maynard-Moody in front of the 11th floor apartment that was burglarized. Police discovered that Maynard-Moody had been sleeping in a Library Lofts basement storage area, where he was also keeping stolen goods. He had pawned some of what he took from the buildings, including two diamond rings, a Sony receiver and a CD player. He was charged on November 6, 2006, with three counts of stealing and four counts of burglary and was sentenced to four years in prison on November 16.

Library Lofts tenants — most of whom spoke with the Pitch anonymously, fearing that management wouldn’t return their security deposits — say problems with crime are common at the Lofts. And it isn’t unusual for homeless people to sleep in the basement of the Lofts, they say.

Sara Yaw, a former resident, broke her lease a year ago. “I’ve seen a couple places that advertise a 24-hour security presence at a desk,” Yaw tells the Pitch. “With all the crimes and problems they’ve had, it seems like something they ought to address.”

Dyanna Chapman, a legal assistant, was one of the first Library Lofts tenants. She moved out March 1, losing her $600 deposit for breaking her lease. Chapman was bothered by the lack of communication from Embassy Properties regarding the break-ins. “I saw it steadily go downhill,” Chapman says. “The last week I was there, there was a carjacking right out front. I thought, You know what? I’m so done.”

The Library Lofts complex was also the site of a killing. In October 2005, a 23-year-old Russian accountant named Alexander Gladkov was shot and killed outside the buildings. One tenant claims that Gladkov had complained to building maintenance staff about the common-key access into the building’s main lobby and had changed the locks to his own loft just weeks before he was shot.

After the October break-ins, Embassy responded by hiring Sunset Security to patrol the buildings. But residents say the security was discontinued in January. Calls to the KCPD from 127 West 10th Street continued. The police received five 911 calls in January, 16 calls in February, five in March and four in April. The callers reported armed robbery, burglary, theft from cars and apartments, and one assault.

Vasko said he wasn’t aware of any jump in the number of crimes reported to 911. “They could be calling from their unit about something that happened across the street or across town,” says Vasko, who serves on the TIF Commission. “I just know we haven’t had any reports turned into my leasing office about any issues. I don’t think we have an issue.”

Last October, the banker in charge of the books for the city’s now-defunct Housing and Economic Development Financial Corporation threatened to foreclose on the properties after Library Lofts failed to repay the $1.5 million loan it received from the city agency. The City Council stepped in with an ordinance that gave Library Lofts an extra two years to pay back the money. The ordinance reads: “The Library Lofts project was, and still remains, an important and pivotal housing project for the continued revitalization of the City’s Downtown.”